The 65th Annual Mountain-Plains Philosophy Conference

Hosted by the University of Colorado-Denver

Denver, Colorado

6-8 October, 2011

 

Thursday, October 6th

 

Metaphysics

1.   “Compositional Nihilism and the Puzzles of Coincidence”  (7:00 PM)

      Holly Kantin (University of Wisconsin)

      Comments: Helen Daly (Colorado College)

      Chair: Antonio Chu (Metropolitan State College, Denver)

 

2.   “What Does It Mean for Mathematical Statements to be Literally True?” (8:00 PM)

      Tim Murphy (Fort Hays State University)

      Comments: Franz-Peter Griesmeier (University of Wyoming)—read by Michael Wolf

      Chair: Mike Coste (Front Range Community College)

 

3.   “Natural Objects, Composition, and Meta-Ontology” (9:00 PM)

      Joshua Brown (University of Houston)

      Comments: Pablo Zavala (University of Wyoming)

      Chair: Ivan Mayerhoffer (Colorado College)

 

 

Friday, October 7th

Early Modern

4.   “Leibniz, Divine Creation and the Principle of Sufficient Reason” (9:00 AM)

      Kirk Lougheed (Trinity Western University)

      Comments: Daniel Considine (Metropolitan State College, Denver)

      Chair: Michael Wolf (Washington and Jefferson College)

 

5.   “Property Entanglement, Constraint Optimization and the Isolation of Unsurpassable Worlds” (10:00 AM)

      Aylish Chantler (University of Oklahoma)

      Comments: Candice Shelby (University of Colorado, Denver)

      Chair: Sarah Pessin (University of Denver)

 

6.   “Justification, Objectivity and Subjectivity in Kant’s Transcendental Deduction of the Categories” (11:00 AM)

      Justin Shaddock (University of Chicago)

      Comments: Gregg Osborne (Washington and Jefferson College)

      Chair: Blake Wilson (Front Range Community College)

 

Lunch

 

Ethics and Value Theory

7.   “David Hume, William Hogarth and the Analysis of Beauty” (1:15 PM)

      James Mock (University of Central Oklahoma)

      Comments: Julie Van Camp (California State University, Long Beach)

      Chair: Gabriel Zamosc-Regueros (University of Colorado, Denver)

 

8.   “Against the Technique of Variant Cases” (2:15 PM)

      Thomas Metcalf (University of Colorado, Boulder)

      Comments: Eva Dadlez (University of Central Oklahoma)

      Chair: Laura Benrhardt (Buena Vista University)

 

9.   “Unifying the Categorical Imperative” (3:15 PM)

      Marcus Arvan (University of Tampa)

      Comments: Andréa Faggion (University of Colorado, Boulder and State University of Maringá, Brazil)

      Chair: Leonard Kahn (United States Air Force Academy)

 

Keynote Address

Mitchell Aboulafia (Manhattan College) (4:30 PM)

 

Saturday, October 8th

Action and Knowledge

10. “An Actional Account of Refraining” (9:00 AM)

      Brandon Johns (University of Southern California)

      Comments: Annaleigh Curtis (University of Colorado, Boulder)

      Chair: Carl Ficarrotta (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)

 

11. “Communication Without Common Knowledge” (10:00 AM)

      Matthias Jenny (Brandeis University)

      Comments: Matthew Pike (University of Colorado, Boulder)

      Chair: David Beisecker (University of Nevada, Las Vegas)

 

12. “The Paradox of Knowability and Factivity” (11:00 AM)

      Michael Shaffer (St. Cloud State University)

      Comments: Jeremy Morris (Ohio University)

      Chair: Alyson Huff (Front Range Community College)

 

Brief history. The Mountain-Plains Philosophy Conference has convened annually since 1947. Keynote speakers have included prominent figures such as Robert Brandom, Roderick Chisholm, Leonard Linsky, Richard Rorty, and John Searle. Although only a handful of talented philosophers from Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming met in the early years, the conference has grown to include folks from other parts of the United States and from around the world.

 

Registration. Registration is $30 and the dinner banquet Friday night costs an additional $30. We accept cash or personal checks. A registration table will be set up at the Curtis Hotel Thursday afternoon and evening and Friday morning. The registration table will open 30 minutes before the first talk.

 

Location. All sessions will be held at the Curtis Hotel, adjacent to the UC Denver campus.

 

Conference administration.

 

2011 local coordinator:

Candice Shelby

Associate Professor of Philosophy

University of Colorado at Denver

1250 14th St. Denver, CO 80217

Candice.Shelby@ucdenver.edu

 

2011 program coordinator:

Michael P. Wolf

Associate Professor of Philosophy

Washington & Jefferson College

60 S. Lincoln St. Washington, PA 15301

mwolf@washjeff.edu

 

Mountain-Plains Executive Committee:

Dave Beisecker, Laura Bernhardt, Eva Dadlez, Douglas Drabkin, Carl Ficarrotta, Franz-Peter Griesmaier, Carl Miller, Harold Rood

 

Conference website.

http://www.mt-plains.org